Ok I have used much more expensive and elaborate equipment but decided to lower my stereo investment. Times are tough. To compare this against much more expensive CJ stuff makes no real sense. It would be astounding if this Rogue won out,but it more then holds it's own. I am very happily surprised at how good it sounds especially with a set of NOS Tung-sol tubes in it. The sound is clear spacious detailed and musical. Did my previous $9,000 pre amp beat it, of course, but by so little in terms of musical listening enjoyment that it really makes one think about blowing a car downpayment on the big hitters. Add to that, "Made in America" and Rouge is a real great buy.

Solid build great looks wide soundstage great customer service

Only after trying another preamp that is designed around tubes, did I realize that the Rogue is noisy. Preamp is very pricey bought new....money could be better spent

Bought 99 Magnun preamp after so many great reviews, and felt like a little kid in that candy store...I couldnt wait for it to arrive and hook it up. It came to my door on a thursday, and it was the same day that I had to go with the wife to her sisters surprise birthday party. You all know where Im going with this....Yes I didnt go with my wife, and boy was she mad. On to the review. I have only owned solid state preamps, and never introduced tubes into my system. With the Magnum 99 in place the soundstage was expansive with a powerful lowend and it sounded great. A few months of heavy listening went by and I felt the honeymoon was over....the 99 didnt have that same charm. A good freind of mine has a very nice tube system and I asked him to bring over his Conrad Johnson tube preamp (older model)to compare the two. After 5 hours of some serious listening, we both agreed that the winner was not the Rogue. Im really let down now....what was i thinking asking him over. His preamp was not designed with the 6sn7 as the Rogue, but wow did his 6922? based preamp blow it away. I might mention that the 99 was being auditioned with nos tubes from Mark Obrein. I thought I would sell this line stage for a decent price and buy something else; but I was taken back by what they were going for used, and most of what I saw were fairly newer preamps like mine a year old, going for a drastic discount. New or newer preamps selling so much cheaper....maybe I should have done some more research on this product. Wow did this depreciate. I was able to buy a used AI M3 with the sale of the Rogue. I asked the same freind over again with his preamp, and we both agreed with the winner, this time it was not the CJ.

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Over the years or current

Realism; Sound Stage; Simply clear, transparent music from top to bottom. Best reproduction ever in my room.

very very slightly less extended than the one other comparison only on the high end of the Audio Spectrum.

This is my first review of any kind. My feeling is that I, too must respond to kek. This is one of two tube preamps that I own, and it is used the most. The reason is that is sounds real. My other Preamp is a highly regarded vintage AR that was wrested from a friend who has been in the business for years and has a much better ear than I, and it wasn't easy talking him out of the AR. I have to say that between the AR and the Rogue, the AR has slightly more transparent and extended upper mid and high end, but the Bass is much tighter on the Rogue. Some people have told me that the AR was one of the best tube Preamps ever made, and to hear the Rogue compare that well to the AR puts it in good company. In any case the review that mentioned that this piece is "dry" in my opinion couldn't be based on listening to the same equipment. For the money, I have never heard a preamp that touches this one expecially in the "liquid" realism department. So...if you're going to do anything, try a Rogue before you spend more. I would also recommend pairing it up with a Digital Amp. I have experienced the same disappointment when giving up my Digital Amp paired with the Rogue when I was forced to switch back to a well known SS amp..it was like going from color to Black and White. The Rogue 99 is the real deal. If someone has a better idea, let me know..I'm still looking.

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AR SP6; Many various SS Amp/Preamp combos; B&K; Krell; NAD; AR SS

Lifelike sounds, very dynamic and detailed. 3 year warranty, 6 months on tubes. Great build quality and even better customer service from the people at Rogue Audio

A tad expensive for a linestage only. An optional tube phono card is almost $400, which would bring the cost to $2400. I think the unit is a tad expensive at 2k as it is. There are other tube preamps out there that are similiar but sell for a lot less money. (granted they might not sound as good, but are close) I would have included a mute feature on the remote, you have to get up from your seating position to mute the unit, that sucks!

This is my first foray with a tube based product. I was able to hear this tube preamp and the same SS amp that I currently own at a very high end store in Manhattan. When I first walked in, the salesman talked with me a little bit and asked me what type of music I listened to. He was very patient and took his time and told me that he had sold this same exact setup to many, many people who were going to spend THOUSANDS more. Each and every person walked out of the store with the Rogue 99 and a Musical Fidelity A308cr. After I listened for a little while I could see why. I was going from an MF A3.2 integrated so I was expecting only good things, I was very happy and surprised to hear only good things. Instruments and voices sound very, very lifelike. Dynamics and soundstaging are both wide and deep. I simply cannot get over how smooth and CLEAR things sound. I am VERY happy with this setup. I really don't forsee any upgrades for a LONG time. Good thing also, the wife is ready to hang me.

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Marantz PM 7000, Musical Fidelity A3.2

- Live performance sound - Understated design - Nicely machined aluminum remote control

- None

I decided to write this review after switching back to a highly acclaimed SS preamp in place of the Rogue Audio 99. I experienced a great loss. The magic of the 99 disappeared. The sweetness of the vocals vanished. It was not a subtle change, but a dramatic loss of realism. I switched back to the 99 and the magic returned. Frank Sinatra returned to perform for us in person again. My spouse who is satisfied with mid-fi equipment also noticed the dramatic improvement. We are both sold on the merits of the 99. The 99 simple produces beautiful music. Highly recommended.

Soundstage , realistic vocals, timber, excitement of the music.Hear the real performance.

None so far.

This is a response to kek. I have been using my Rogue 99 for over a year and it is terrific. You talked about tube sound and didn't clarify what that means to you. Also you did't list the rest of your system, which is very important and for help what type of music you like and wkat format, LP or CD. I think you bailed out too soon on the 99. I have done several listening teats with SS Pre-amps and trust me the 99 is not close to a SS sound. Hope you find what you are looking for.

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Adcom.

see above

see above

After reading various reviews I thought I would try the Magnum 99, and I bought one new. My first impressions were that this preamp had fantastic soundstaging that was both deep and wide with great lowend character, BUT it was missing that tube signature. The signature that has warmth, decay, high end dynamics, feeling. I remember Chip Stern's review in Stereophile in which he said in his closing remarks that the Rogue Magnum 99 sound is somewhat dry, and I do agree. I called Mark OBrien at Rogue (great guy and service) to try different tubes and see if this might be the fix. I went through 3 (12) complete sets of NOS tubes from 3 seperate sources and found the sound to be dry each time.Like diet pop where the it starts off tasting good and then dies off on you. I thought the Rogue sounded to ss. I also found it to be somewhat noisy; I turned the gain down to try to over come this. With all of the tube rolling that I did, I felt the tube sockets were going to be ripped out of the board upon removal of the tubes...poor design. Taking off, replacing the cover was a job in itself, and I dread the thought of changing out tubes....fought getting it on and off. Using the remote made a loud audible sound through the speakers; you should get a better quality volume control for the money being spent. My first tubed preamp was 1/4 the cost of the Rogue; it didnt have the soundstaging of the Rogue but sounded so much better musically.My wife even said that the Rogue didnt sound as good as my previous preamp........this blew me away.....my wife the silent critic. The reviews here praise the Rogue, but many of them were submitted long ago, at a time when you didnt need to register. Just a thought. I sold the Rogue and took a $750 loss only owning it a very short period of time...what a bad call on my part.

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Nad preamp, Adcom preamp,AES AE-3 preamp, Cary Slp98 preamp

A good buy, Upgradable to Magnum, a good and responsive company behind the product. Has a mono switch, headphone jack, and a hefty remote control for volume.?xD;?xA;?xD;?xA;Sonically it is smooth yet dynamic. It projects a huge soundstage with both width and depth. I has plenty of detail. It is not about reproducing sound, but reproducing music.

I'm not that crazy about the look of it. The remote is sometimes slow to respond.

The Rogue 99 (non-magnum) became the final piece for my idea of sonic bliss. Since puting it into my system, I have stopped looking at equipment; I just enjoy the music. Chipp Stern reviewed the Magnum version of this pre-amp in Stereophile. I had some questions about his review and talked with him on the phone about the piece, and have a lenghthy e-mail from him that both expands on his review and is more frank than I thought he would ever be in comparing it to other pre-amps. I would forward you a copy of that if you wish.... loveless@qcnet.net?xD;?xA;?xD;?xA;My system: Oracle Delphi Mk III / Premier FT-3/Grado Sonata?xD;?xA; Grado phono pre-amp?xD;?xA; Rega Jupiter?xD;?xA; Rogue 99?xD;?xA; Bryston 4B-ST?xD;?xA; Magnaplanar 2.7?xD;?xA; Goetz & synergistic interconnects - Goetz speaker

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As listed below

As listed below (but not many!)

An add-on to my previous post -- accidentally left out some pertinent info. I have an Aragon 8008BB amp that I really like, but just was not getting the full richness of sound from the system. I had tried various combos with it -- starting with using my HT receiver (Integra DTR 8.2) as the preamp using its pre-outs, then moving to the ADCOM GFP-750. The ADCOM provided more detail, but frankly it was just too dry, at times almost harsh. My speakers are B&W Nautilus 804s, which again I love for their detail, but which needed a little extra warmth. So, I decided rather than scrapping the amp for something different, I'd try a good tube preamp that could add some of that tube warmth and richness. The Rogue really has done this in spades -- it matches up well with both the Aragon and the B&W's, and I finally feel like I have the system I;ve been looking for. Also, the price above reflects that I bought the dealer demo, which was just broken in. This way I could start really enjoying the system from the get-go, rather than breaking it in myself. One more point -- I had planned on getting the Magnum version (with better tubes, etc.) at the dealer, but went with plan B since what he had on hand was the regular version. I will upgrade to the Magnum in the future -- however, I've decided to wait ahwile and get some more time out of the stock tubes that are in it now. I've just been having too much fun rediscovering my CD collection. And this week I jump into the analog waters completely, with a Music Hall MMF-7 turntable and Musical Surroundings Phonomena phono stage. THAT will be fun to try with the Rogue. More on that later. My setup: Rogue 99 Preamp Aragon 8008BB amp B&W Nautilus 804 speakers Sony CE-775 SACD changer Music Hall MMF-7 turntable w/Pro-ject 9 arm, Goldring Eroica MC cartridge Musical Surroundings Phonomena phono stage MIT MH-770 CVTerminator Bi-Wire speaker cables Harmonic Tech Pro-Silway and Tara RSC Interconnects

All the strengths of a great tube preamp - openness, warmth, tone, richness. Good detail too Remote w/volume control Outboard power supply Simple, elegant, slightly retro design Great advice & customer service from Rogue Easy upgrade to Magnum (if you don't go for that version off the bat) GREAT bargain!!!

Not the last word in detail No mute or input selection on remote -- really, not much of a downside at this price!

This is a great preamp, especially for the price. It will get you solidly into high-quality tube sound, and provide immediate impact and improvement to your system. Can help offset problems in system (sharpness of solid state amp, for one). Highly recommended.

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First tube preamp Solid state: Integra, ADCOM, Classe